Between The Tree Rings
This is it....52 stories later....and then there was one.
The Facts
Text: Between The Tree Rings Author: Kristen Cote
Genre: Fantasy, Meta fiction Year: 2019
Available: Uprooted Iconoclast Fall 2019
or my Writing Portfolio Here !
The Fiction
Week 52...this marks one year since I started this project to read and write about one short story a week for a year. The ethos of the project was that it can be difficult to become invested in new stories when there are so many choices out there. So I proposed simplifying things with an easy goal. Just 52 stories, about 52 characters, about 52 lives. And this is the last one.
We put a lot of emphasis on endings, and I wanted this last post to stand out so this final entry of this year long project will be about a very special short story...my own. As I went through my writing portfolio (which you can click the link to above!) and read through some of my old work it became obvious when I got to this week's story that this was one to close off the year.
Between the Tree Rings is a story I wrote for one of Western University's literary publications (Iconoclast) in my third year. I wrote Between The Tree Rings at a coffee house/writing party hosted by Symposium, the other literary publication on campus. The theme for Symposium's fall issue was Obscura, and the theme for Icon's fall issue was Uprooted. Wanting to submit something for both publications this story is clearly a combination of both those themes. The strange and the natural, the forest and the fairytale inside it. The Symposium party took place in a classroom on campus that had been decorated with mannequin heads, candles and had a professional psychic giving readings. It was a fun time, full of creative people and was the atmosphere that created this story.
But enough of the story behind the story. Let's get into the actual piece. Between The Tree Rings is a story about a forest where stories grow in between the rings of trees. It is a story about a man who cuts one of the trees down and finding he can't read the story written on the stump burns the forest down. It is a story about the forest and its stories regrowing after the ash. It is, mostly, a story about stories, and where they come from, and how they entangle with us.
It is a story about beginnings and endings. The stories that grow between the rings of trees are read from the edges toward the center. This means that the word in the very center ring, the ring that grew first at the beginning of the tree's life, is the end of the story. The tree tells the story in reverse as it grows. It starts at the end and grows to the beginning... which I suppose is why I thought it would the right story to end this project.
The Feeling
Alright so that's what my story is, but how do I feel about it? Between The Tree Rings is part of an unofficial sort of universe of short stories I have loosely called the "There is..." series. These are a series of short stories I wrote that all start with the line "There is" and are all told in a mythic or fairytale like style. Instead of once upon a time, mine start with "there is" and contain some element of fantasy and fable and are all metafiction, or stories about stories.
I've developed a very particular voice as I worked on these stories. The style of Between The Tree Rings is a mix between prose and poetry. There is a repetition and and rhetorical style. The narrator of the story while unclear is clearly addressing the reader or audience. I use "you" a lot in the story directly inviting the reader into the strange forest. The way the story is told so directly to a reader or audience really creates a performative feel to the piece, as if it was meant to be read aloud.
Unlike a lot of the stories I've covered in this blog there is not really a protagonist to this piece. The only character we learn about is the man who burns the forest down. One could argue that the forest is a kind of protagonist, the setting so alive it is like a character in its own right.
Thematically this is a story about storytelling, something which is true for most of my writing. There is also some environmentalism in this story, with the images of cutting down and later burning down a forest of trees. It is stylistic and atmospheric, mostly about capturing that fairytale like mood. I enjoy the prose of this story and the concept. One thing a year of doing this blog on other short stories has made me realize is that if I ever rewrote this one I might put more emphasis on a protagonist and their journey through this forest. Overall I love the work I did on this concept and could see myself returning to this wood one day to check on the living library in the trees.
The Future
Since the first week of this blog I've kept the formatting the same with three sections: Facts, Fiction, and Feeling. As this is the last week I've added this last section to help tie things up.
So what is the future of 52shortlives? Is it over?
The answer is...I don't know. When I started this project in February of last year I was a year out of school, in the middle of a pandemic, and had a lot of time on my hands to put into this project. Part way into the year, in September, I started a post-grad course in Screenwriting and Narrative Design, and have found it more of a challenge to keep up with weekly posting on this blog and my assignments for school.
That is to say I am thinking about what I will do next. A continuation of this blog? Another 52 weeks of short stories? Maybe 52 weeks of something else? Films, or poetry, or pilot episodes of tv, or podcasts, or....well I could write about a lot. I will keep thinking about what my next blog project will be and whether I want to keep the 52 posts weekly format(which I do really like as a sort of time capsule although obviously it is a strict time commitment).
So is this website going quiet for awhile?
Well...no. While I don't foresee any new posts or projects being announced quite yet while I finish my post grad degree I'm not completely abandoning the site! I intend to come up with Top 10 lists, or recommendations by genres, or best character lists, etc. So if you haven't read every post on this blog and are wondering what sorts of stories might peak your interest or you're just curious what my favourite stories of the year were...keep an eye out for those lists!
Finally, I would just like say, thank you for reading with me! I hope you read something new, or thought about stories in a different way, or smiled at a pun I made. I hope you let at least one of these 52 lives into your year.
Keep reading!
Kristen Cote
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